The facts about the federal health care plan

Monday

Jul 30, 2012 at 2:00 AM

This letter is in response to submissions by Tom Pearson (July 9) and Thomas Gergen (July 11). These gentlemen could begin by giving the Affordable Care Act and the 160 million Americans who currently support it the respect of calling the act by its proper title. The right-wing propaganda machine came up with the slur "Obama-care." Mr. Pearson claims that the act goes against the right-wing principle of "forcing people to fend more for themselves, rather than coddling them with benefits for votes." He likes the survival-of-the-fittest model of free-market insurance companies for your health care, where only the wealthy are stress-free. Like most right-wingers who are not interested in facts, he may want to consider the following.

July 25 — To the Editor:

This letter is in response to submissions by Tom Pearson (July 9) and Thomas Gergen (July 11). These gentlemen could begin by giving the Affordable Care Act and the 160 million Americans who currently support it the respect of calling the act by its proper title. The right-wing propaganda machine came up with the slur "Obama-care." Mr. Pearson claims that the act goes against the right-wing principle of "forcing people to fend more for themselves, rather than coddling them with benefits for votes." He likes the survival-of-the-fittest model of free-market insurance companies for your health care, where only the wealthy are stress-free. Like most right-wingers who are not interested in facts, he may want to consider the following.

The median income in America is now $49,400 (U.S. Census Bureau). One hundred and sixty million of our citizens, including the majority of our children, live in these homes, and the vast majority of these parents are very hardworking. The average annual premium for good health insurance coverage is currently around $25,000 per anum. Do the math and it will be obvious how much money is left over for the average family to live on. That is why Mr. Obama came up with his Affordable Care Act. Messrs. Pearson and Gergen need to stop focusing on the agenda of very wealthy people that right-wing fear-mongering and propaganda are constantly presenting. The individual mandate was first presented to Congress in 1993 by conservative Republicans Orrin Hatch, Charles Grassley and Bob Bennett. It was a conservative idea adopted by Mr. Obama. The current mandate requires everyone over the age of 26 to have health insurance so that we, who have paid our premiums for the past many years, are not subsidizing "free riders" who have the rest of us pay for their health care via the emergency rooms in our hospitals. Remember, good old conservatives do not like free-riders. In addition, you only have to pay the tax if you are a free-rider and refuse to buy health insurance. Let me repeat: only free-riders have to pay the tax. So do not buy the "huge tax increase" nonsense and fear-mongering. There are now very affordable ways for the 48 million of our citizens who do not have health insurance to be covered. Mr. Obama likes to help his neighbors who are but one major accident or serious illness away from financial ruin, and helping our neighbors is patriotic. Devious bureaucrats in insurance companies can no longer deny you health care due to "pre-existing conditions." Devious bureaucrats can no longer deny you health care due to "exceeding your lifetime or annual health-care limits." Bureaucrats can no longer deny coverage for genuine mental and emotional illnesses. Bureaucrats at insurance companies are prohibited from dropping coverage when people get sick, which was a "sick" game many of them practiced.

It is obvious by their comments that neither Mr. Pearson or Mr. Gergen have read the ACA. You will find the act quite readable at the following link: www.healthcare.gov/law/full/ or you can read a good summary on Wikipedia.

As you read, you will find Mr. Pearson's ditto-head, psychologically loaded language (e.g. "Obama believes that the middle class is a bunch of losers") to be completely false.

Paul Treacy

Kittery Point, Maine

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